War of Beauty is a game from Taiwan, and it is a party game about palace drama, i.e. how the concubines of the emperor fight for power and influence. One of the designers is Kevin Tsai (蔡康永), a popular TV show host. When I saw the components of the game, I was intrigued and very keen to give it a go. If you like this kind of Chinese TV drama about politicking at the palace, you will get a real kick out of this. The historical background is the Qing Dynasty, the last dynasty.
You start the game as entry level concubines at the imperial palace, called Da Ying. To win the game, you have to climb the "corporate ladder" to become queen.
Everyone gets a screen like this. This is the front.
This is the back. This is also a player aid.
When folded, the player screen looks like a book.
The game has many components, but the core mechanism is very simple. There are two main types of cards, visit cards and character cards. To get a promotion, you need to collect three of the same visit card type. Visit cards in your hand don't count. They need to be played. When you play a visit card, you play it face down and you offer it to another player. Now a visit card can be good or bad. The player you offer it to decides whether to accept it. If she does, she takes the card and places it face up before her. If she politely declines, then you take the card and place it face up before you. This is how visit cards are collected. When you offer a good card, you hope the other player will decline. When you offer a bad card, you hope they will accept, otherwise you must take it.
Once you have three good cards of the same type, you discard them and gain a promotion. However if you get three bad cards, you will be banished to the cold palace (冷宫). This means the emperor dislikes you and neglects you for a while. You need to get out of the cold palace first before you can continue to be competitive.
So the core mechanism is super simple. It's just about offering cards to others, and hoping they will decline the good cards, and accept the bad ones. I consider this a party game. It's all about gaming the players and not so much the system.
Character cards are special power cards. Some help you, some sabotage others. One other funny way to get promoted is to collect cards that make a very specific sentence. Every card has a single Chinese character at the top left. If you make an exact five character sentence “我要做自己” (I want to be myself), you get promoted too.
I shall call these entanglement cards. You draw two at the start of the game.
Entanglement cards represent past history with other players in the game. There is someone who has helped you before and you want to repay her. There is also someone who has wronged you, and you want revenge. If you manage to help (or hurt) that person, you will get a promotion. Because of these entanglement cards, you can tell your friend that you want to help her and you are giving her a precious good card, and that she must accept it. But then of course you might not have such an entanglement card, or your entanglement card might actually require you to sabotage her instead. So you are actually offering her a bad card - say some poisoned lychee. When I played this game I kept telling the others, here, have some abortion soup.
Character cards are long, like bookmarks
This finger ornament is an optional deluxe component
This is the kind of game where you enjoy the setting and the components. The rules are very simple. This is something you can easily play with casual gamers. Those who like this kind of palace drama will get into the spirit immediately. Mink coat from America, my lady?
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